OITS Assignment Report

Group F2 OTISLINE

Group Members Shirsho Biswas (0344/48) Shridhar Jaiswal (0347/48) Shubhkarman Singh Sidhu (0350/48)

Q1. What might be the motivation for Otis to launch this project? Ans. The elevator service business alone was $2 billion, which was almost twice that of product sales. Also it was a more stable market than the product sales market. It was essential that this part of the business ran as effectively and efficiently as possible. Customer call-back responsiveness was the main factor on which this business depended. Earlier, when they used commercial answering services to attend non-primetime calls, the quality of service varied greatly since the answering services did not have the same motivation as the company to provide a fast response to the customer. NAO had earlier calculated that reducing call-backs for each installed elevator, by one a year, the company would save $5million annually. By launching OTISLINE, OTIS expected to improve the responsiveness and quality of their call-back service significantly, and thus saving a significant amount of money and increasing their share of the highly profitable elevator service business.

Q2. How was value created in the product? Ans. OTISLINE created strong value for the company. It provided a real competitive advantage to OTIS with its ability to collapse both distance and time, providing in faster responses to customers and better maintenance procedures. The marketing services improved in terms of:   Responsiveness – Customer was assigned a service representative in a time efficient manner without any delays. Reliability- It helped the management could identify the key trouble spots and send help in a minimum time and also aided the engineering department to spot trends in elevator design problems. Innovation – It was the first professionally staffed customer service canter in the elevator industry. Customer satisfaction – Implementation of OTISLINE resulted in huge reduction of volume of complaints and service calls.

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OTISLINE helped in improving the service quality of New Equipment Sales (NES) by assisting sales representatives in effective negotiation, estimation and disposition of new equipment. Assisted top management in improving resource allocation, employee training and recruitment of new hires based on the efficient feedback system. It facilitated the expansion of the service management system to include all maintenance activities for elevators. Dispatching and control of service mechanics was made more efficient than the earlier manual system.

Q3. What adjustments in the organization were needed, if any to accommodate OTISLINE? 1. System Improvement The current system needed to be upgraded to handle greater workload. Thus IBM 370/158 was replaced with IBM 3083. This included sophisticated direct access storage devices, tape drivers, and telecommunications equipment. OTISLINE application display screens were designed to guide the customer and dispatcher through the process of quick identification of building and elevator needing service.

2. Improved training of staff Dispatchers were trained to be polite, understanding, and efficient and to speak clearly. New hires received 4-6 weeks of training covering  The OTISLINE software(dispatching system)  IBM display  Operation of the phone system  Appropriate telephone salutations and courtesies  Listening and customer satisfaction skills  Overview of Otis Elevator organization structure  Elevator terminology and possible system problems 3. Contract Management The top management of Otis were more actively involved in the decision making process, than the existing system.